1. Field
This invention generally relates to music, specifically to a music notation system for a two dimensional keyboard.
2. Background
According to the conventional music notation system, symbols are placed on a series of parallel, horizontal lines, called a staff, to depict tones of the music being visually recorded. The conventional staff consists of five uniformly spaced, horizontal lines and the intervening spaces. Graphic symbols, or notes, are positioned on the staff on a line, in a space between two lines, in the space immediately above the top line, and in the space immediately below the bottom line. A disadvantage of conventional music notation is that there are high and low notes that don't fall on the staff and require ledger lines, which are difficult to read.
An impediment to learning to play the piano is the poor visual correlation between conventional music notation and the conventional piano keyboard. The lines and spaces of the staff do not indicate white vs. black keys. A student must learn to recognize the notes on the staff by name, and then find the associated piano key. She must also learn how to interpret sharps and flats in the key signature, and substitute black keys accordingly during her performance. Note that a given line or space indicates a different note in the bass and treble clefs, causing confusion for musicians. More confusion is added by the fact that a note representing a given pitch that appears on a line in one octave, will appear in a space in the next higher or lower octave, and so forth, thereby constantly altering its appearance. Therefore, the musician cannot with complete ease distinguish a pitch by its location on a conventional staff.
There are also aspects of rhythm notation which are also confusing in conventional music notation. Conventional music notation uses a combination of graphic symbols to indicate note duration. Filled vs. unfilled note heads, the presence and shape of a flag, dots, ties, and time signature all may be used in combination to determine the duration of a note. Dots are small and can be overlooked in a piece of music, leading to errors.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that an operator of a musical instrument using conventional music notation is required to process a significant amount of information using a difficult system in order to produce a musical sound from a musical instrument.
The present inventor disclosed a two dimensional keyboard in provisional patent Ser. No. 61/751,861 and US Patent Application #(SEE INFORMATION DISCLOSURE). That keyboard comprises one or more handboards, where each handboard is intended to be played by one hand, and each handboard has a two dimensional arrangement of keys. The columns are formed by an octave of conventional piano keys. The rows are formed by subdividing the conventional piano keys. First the keys are subdivided into a front key area with wide white keys and optionally thin extensions of the black keys, and a rear key area with white and black keys. The front and rear key areas are each further subdivided into rows of octaves. Two octaves of a note can be played with the same finger, and a hand can span a three octave range.
The two dimensional keyboard has a number of other benefits. It is roughly one third the size of an electronic piano keyboard with the same number of notes. Because it is two dimensional, it is easier to represent it as a graphic on a tablet, cell phone, television, or other device. It can be paired with a strummer to make a guitar-like instrument. It has ergonomic features that make it easier to play by touch than a piano. It organizes musical notes by octave and scale degree to improve music learning. In order to fully realize the benefits of the two dimensional keyboard, a companion two dimensional music notation system is needed.